Names
In the English language, ethnic Germans that originated in the Kingdom of Bohemia were traditionally referred to as ″German Bohemians″. This appellation utilizes the broad definition of Bohemia, which includes all of the three Bohemian crown lands: Bohemia proper, Moravia and Czech Silesia. In the German language, it is more common to distinguish between the three lands, hence the prominent terms Deutschböhmen (German Bohemians), Deutschmährer (German Moravians) and Deutschschlesier (German Silesians). Even in German, however, the broader use of ″Bohemian″ is also found.
The term ″Sudeten Germans″ (Sudetendeutsche) came about during rising ethnic nationalism in the early 20th century, after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War. It coincided with the rise of another new term, ″the Sudetenland″, which referred only to the parts of the former Kingdom of Bohemia that were inhabited predominately by ethnic Germans. These names were derived from the Sudeten Mountains, which form the northern border of the Czech lands. As these terms were heavily used by the Nazi German regime to push forward the creation of a Greater Germanic Reich, many contemporary Germans avoid them in favor of the traditional names.
Read more about this topic: Sudeten Germans
Famous quotes containing the word names:
“It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words.... The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)
““Well then, it’s Granny speaking: ‘I dunnow!
Mebbe I’m wrong to take it as I do.
There ain’t no names quite like the old ones, though,
Nor never will be to my way of thinking.
One mustn’t bear too hard on the newcomers,
But there’s a dite too many of them for comfort....’””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)